Marystown - Information Brokerage Ltd. (IBL) is pleased to announce that Mr. Ian Edwards has been awarded the inaugural David Thompson Geomatics Awar d, “Contribution to Society” for his participation and vision in the development of LandGazette. The David Thompson National Geomatics Awards are sponsored by the Association of Canada Lands Surveyors. The judging committee is made up of representatives from the Canadian Council of Land Surveyors and the Geomatics Industry Association of Canada.

LandGazette is a web enabled provincial geo-database, which enables land surveyors, anywhere in the province, to deposit their respective surveys in a centralized database. End users can utilize any standard browser to access the information on a fee per transaction basis, with a portion of the fee being directed to the authoring surveyor. End user searches may be initiated via a textural string or by simply clicking on the mapping interface. Utility companies can also input and manage easements.

The David Thompson National Geomatics Awards have been implemented in honor of David Thompson, who arguably may be considered “the greatest land geographer who ever lived,” ( www.davidthompsonthings.com/geog.htm) . “David Thompson, … Canada’s most prolific explorer—the fur trader and surveyor who almost single-handedly mapped the nation's vast, unknown interior 200 years ago. He covered 80,000 miles by foot, horseback, dogsled, and canoe, defining a fifth of the continent, compiling 77 volumes of journals about its geography, biology, and ethnography. Equipped only with a brass sextant and a courageous heart, he made maps that rival images gleaned from today's satellites. He was, some think, the world's greatest land geographer. (Source: Vesilind, Priit J. "The Man Who Measured Canada." National Geographic May 1996)

Mr. Edwards states that winning the inaugural award is very humbling; it is like receiving the Nobel Peace Prize of Geomatics in Canada. During his acceptance speech, in Quebec City, he acknowledged the considerable efforts made by his co-workers and the Association of Newfoundland Land Surveyors, who collectively have made LandGazette a reality. He also recognized the financial contributions of share holders and the various funding agencies, who have supported the initiative. Mr. Edwards states that LandGazette may well form the basis of the first comprehensive land ownership mapping system in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

To learn more about LandGazette, visit www.landgazette.com. Additional information on David Thompson may be viewed at www.davidthompsonthings.com/geog.htm

For additional information please contact:

Ian Edwards, 709 279-1990

Marystown - Information Brokerage Ltd. (IBL) of Marystown has secured $200,000 in private investment to capitalize an innovative new project.

It’s an important milestone for the company, which has been involved in a private placement share offering of $250,000 to develop and launch LandGazette, an online web-enabled graphical representation of private land holding in the province.

The private investment is being leveraged at a ratio of approximately 3:1, which means that for every private investment dollar raised the company will receive 3 dollars from provincial and federal funding agencies.

"We’re almost there," said Ian Edwards, President and CEO of IBL. "We need an additional $50,000 to complete our private share offering objectives. Overtures are being made at this time to potential investors who might be interested in participating in this venture."

IBL is developing the web enabled spatial data input tools to permit members of the Association of Newfoundland Land Surveyors (ANLS) to input their respective land surveys into an ONLINE central database, as they are completed. "This places responsibility for the creation and maintenance of the real property ‘jigsaw puzzle’ in the hands of the people most qualified to do so and who have been charged with the responsibility under the Land Surveyors Act," said Edwards. "End users will be able to sign onto www.LandGazette.com and search for real property information by owner name, municipality, parcel identifier or graphical selection. The advantages over traditional search means, which include poring through indexes, microfilm and bound archives at the Registry of Deeds in St. John’s, are just tremendous."

The system will operate on a fee per transaction basis. Revenues will be distributed between the contributing land surveyors, the ANLS and IBL. "There should be sufficient financial incentives under the royalty regime to entice land surveyors to enter the hundreds of years of historic information that they have in their offices," Edward said.

Development of LandGazette commenced in January 2005 and the system is scheduled to be operational by end of December 2005.

A Marystown businessman wants to bring the business of surveying land in Newfoundland into the computer age.

The idea is to create a searchable, online map of the province using land surveys. That map will show residential and commercial property boundaries and their evolution as those boundaries are altered.

Ian Edwards aims to have his online database to be known as the land gazette up and running by October.

To do this, he has created a new company called Information Brokerage Ltd. (IBL) and is selling shares to raise $250,000 from private investors.

It’s a portion of the $800,000 he needs to start up the high-tech company.

The land gazette will grow one survey at a time, and Edwards figures it will take five years for the database to mature.

"Over five years, we anticipate we’ll have a fairly dense database of ownership especially in the areas where there’s a lot of activity, like St. John’s and the northeast Avalon," said Edwards. He’s a land surveyor with his own company, Edwards and Associates, based in Marystown. Edwards is also a consultant on municipal projects, such as water, sewer and road upgrades. Investors aren’t the only ingredient required for his land gazette.

Another is an agreement with the Association of Newfoundland Land Surveyors. It commits IBL to developing the software tools and managing the database, while the survey industry provides the land maps.

"Our goal is to have a prototype ready for mid-May for the land surveyors," he said. "The tools will enable the surveyors without a middle person to input their information. There are other systems, but they’re usually run or managed by government."

Land survey companies will receive a 25 per cent royalty each time their information is searched and downloaded. It provides a little extra cash for survey work that usually generates just one-time revenue.

"That is unique in Canada," he said. "That’s what’s giving us buy-in from the association." The royalties will come from a transaction fee of $1.50 to search the database and an $8 fee to download a document.

Edwards says there will be about 2,000 regular users for the database, including land surveyors, lawyers, real estate agents, municipalities and government agencies and departments. Information Brokerage’s database will show boundaries, easements and rights of way. It will also show the evolution of land ownership in map form.

That means stitching together individual property maps into one big map. "The jigsaw puzzle of land ownership would have intelligence," said Edwards. "To do that, you can’t just place a scanned image in. The fabric has got to be integrated, or knitted together."

Edwards also expects to be able to overlay current land ownerships on old Crown maps, allowing researchers to track title histories more easily once that information is input by land surveyors. "We have financial incentives for the surveyors to input the historic information. It would be a big job very labour intensive. A lot of the old survey plans are not digital form."

He envisions hiring 20-30 people for that work.

Shares in IBL went up for sale last October and are being sold in 40 lots of 5,000 shares. Each lot costs $6,250.

There are about a dozen lots remaining. Looking for assistance Edwards is investing 35 per cent of the company’s start-up costs and will be the controlling shareholder of IBL.

He is also looking for assistance from federal agencies, such as the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the National Research Council (NRC).

IBL has already received funds from NRC "the first agency to step up to the plate," said Edwards. He has also received $50,000 in seed money and $10,000 for marketing from the provincial Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development. The department has 500 shares in the company.

In his business plan, Edwards expects to pay dividends in Year 3 of operation. That’s also when he expects to hit revenues of about $1.2 million annually and have operation costs of about $550,000 per year.

IBL’s board of directors includes businessman Dean MacDonald, lawyer Steve Marshall and Newfoundland-born Ivan Ford, an expert in land registry systems.

Edwards says Ford’s expertise will come in handy in exporting Information Brokerage’s land gazette system to developing countries.

"Ivan’s expertise will help us in building a system that will fit their business needs." Edwards says his company is also doing its part to reverse out-migration on the Burin Peninsula. The company has hired three people two from St. John’s and one from British Columbia. IBL will also set up an office in St. John’s.

mbaird@thetelegram.com